Privacy Statement

We take your privacy seriously at Prevent Breast Cancer. You can update your communication preferences at any time.

Privacy statement

Prevent Breast Cancer is committed to protecting your privacy

Prevent Breast Cancer (‘we’, ‘us’) respect the privacy of every person who engages with us online or in person(‘you’). This privacy notice describes how Prevent Breast Cancer collects and processes personal information about individuals, how we use and protect this information, and your rights in relation to this information.

Our privacy notice applies to all personal information we collect or process about you. ‘Personal information’ is information, or a combination of pieces of information that could reasonably allow you to be identified, such as your name or email address.

We may need to change this policy from time to time. Please check this policy before providing any personal information.

Our Contact Details:

Address: Prevent Breast Cancer, The Nightingale Centre, Wythenshawe Hospital, Southmoor Road, Manchester, M23 9LT

Phone Number: 0161 291 4400

Email: info@preventbreastcancer.org.uk

Registered Charity number: 1109839

Registered Company Number: 4831397

1. The types of information we collect

Depending on the activity you’re undertaking, the categories of personal information that we collect directly from you include: 

  • Your name
  • Your contact details 
  • Your date of birth 
  • Your bank or credit card details (which we do not store) 
  • Your involvement in our charity – for example, your fundraising activities, donation history or attendance at our events 
  • Any personal stories or details of your personal attributes or experiences that you share with us
  • Your interests with regard to the activities of the charity (e.g. which sporting activities or events you have told us that you would like more information about) 
  • Surveys or feedback that you choose to complete 
  • Any other communications that you have with us, for example by email or telephone 

When you use our website or other online services, we also collect certain personal information about you automatically, including: 

  • Authentication and identification information (such as your IP address – a number that identifies a specific computer or other internet device)
  • Information about your usage of our services and other sites you have visited 
  • Your location 

For more details about the information we collect automatically, view our Cookie Policy. 

Some people choose to tell us about their experiences with breast cancer to help further the work of the charity. In these cases, this involves collecting special categories of personal data known as ‘sensitive personal information’. In particular, we may process personal information related to your health (or the health of one of your relatives), such as medical history and reports on medical diagnoses, illness, and treatment, as well as information about family life, biographical and contact information. 

Note that in some cases we may be required by law to collect certain personal information about you, or as a consequence of a contractual relationship with you. Failure to provide this information may prevent or delay the fulfilment of these obligations. We will inform you at the time your information is collected whether it is compulsory to provide the data, and if so the consequences of failing to provide such data. 

2. How we collect information about you

Prevent Breast Cancer will collect personal information about you from a variety of sources, including information we collect from you directly (e.g. when you contact us or engage with our charity by, for example, making a donation, volunteering, requesting information or buying something from us). We will also collect information from other sources, described below: 

  • Companies you may make donations through, such as JustGiving, Facebook, Instagram, CAF & Donr 
  • Companies that process payments, such as SagePay, Blackbaud Merchant Services, Shopify Payments, iZettle and Paypal
  • Companies that gather data such as SurveyMonkey, WordPress and EventBrite,
  • PR Companies who may, from time to time, supply us with media contacts 
  • Companies who provide a service for us such as Social Mind who manage social media fundraising campaigns 

Prevent Breast Cancer does not purchase contact lists from companies or obtain personal data from online sources or other charities. 

Before contacting specific individuals to ask if they would like to support our work, we may undertake research using public information sources, such as news reports, publications or social media sites, to better understand how likely it is that they will be interested. If our research shows that a person is unlikely to be interested in supporting Prevent Breast Cancer, we will not contact them and we will not keep any research information. If we do contact you based on our research, we will inform you about the information we hold and agree with you how we can use it in the context of your potential support for the charity. 

When we interact with you on social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn) we may also obtain some personal information about you. This information will not be stored using our IT systems. The information that we receive will depend on the privacy preferences and privacy policies of each platform. To change your settings on these platforms, please refer to their Privacy Notices.

3. How we may use your personal information

The main purposes for which we use your personal information are to: 

  • Deal with your enquiries and requests
  • Provide and personalise our services 
  • Provide you with information you have requested. This might include updates on our research and details of upcoming fundraising events and activities 
  • Administer any charity auctions or raffles you have participated in, for example contacting you to let you know you have won a prize 
  • Take your donation or support your fundraising, including processing of Gift Aid 
  • Keep a record of your relationship with us
  • Ensure we know how you prefer to be contacted 
  • Conduct research and analysis, as described in more detail below 
  • Comply with legal obligations to which we are subject and cooperate with regulators and law enforcement bodies, for example the collection of Gift Aid or to support certain financial transactions such as our financial audit 
  • Personalise our digital and social media advertising to enable your experience of our channels to be more tailored to your preferences 

Prevent Breast Cancer uses case studies to tell stories about our supporters. We would never use your story as a case study without obtaining your consent first. If a suitable opportunity arises for us to use the information you have given us, we will contact you to fully explain how we would like to use your information, and get in touch with you each time we would like to use it outside of the organisation to obtain your fully informed consent. 

If we have explicit and informed consent through a Case Study, photo consent or event registration form, or a parent or guardian if you are under 18, we may use this material to promote our work, such as our annual report, online via our social media accounts, at events and through PR activity. Explicit consent may be withdrawn at any time by filling in the form on this page or contacting us directly by emailing info@preventbreastcancer.org.uk or calling 0161 291 4400.

Research and analysis 

Prevent Breast Cancer may conduct analysis of our current supporters by group, post code or particular area where supporters may be based. This is to ensure that campaigns or mailings are sent to those who will be most interested or likely to respond. This activity is not aimed at identifying specific individuals to target, but rather many individuals who fall within a certain segment of supporters (e.g. if we are holding an event in a certain city, we may send information about this event to individuals who live in and around that city). 

When advertising using social media platforms (such as Twitter, Google and Facebook), we may use their marketing systems to target our advertising more effectively. Where you have asked us not to use your information for targeted digital advertising, you may still see advertising for Prevent Breast Cancer through these mediums. This is because the social media site or advertising network may select you based on the information they hold, such as your age, location or websites you have visited, without using information that we collect ourselves. The Privacy Policies of those sites will include information on how to opt out of their targeted advertising. 

Where you have given appropriate consent, we will use information about your health to ensure that we do not send you any communications or ask you to take part in any activity that would not be appropriate; or to better support you in an activity you are doing for us.

Legal bases for processing personal data 

We must have a legal basis to process your personal information. In most cases the legal basis will be one of the following: 

  • To fulfil our contractual obligations to you, for example to apply your donations in the manner agreed, or to provide fundraising assistance when we have agreed to do so 
  • To comply with our legal obligations, for example in relation to tax compliance
  • To meet our legitimate interests, for example to support fundraising, to conduct research, and to raise awareness of our charity’s goals and achievements. When we process personal information to meet our legitimate interests, we put in place robust safeguards to ensure that your privacy is protected and to ensure that our legitimate interests do not override your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms. 

We may obtain your consent and use certain types of personal information when we are required to do so by law (for example, in relation to our direct marketing activities, cookies and tracking technologies, or when we process sensitive information). If we ask for your consent to process your personal information, you may withdraw your consent at any time by filling in the form on this page or contacting us directly by emailing info@preventbreastcancer.org.uk or calling 0161 291 4400. 

4. Your information and other organisations

Prevent Breast Cancer will never rent or sell your personal information to other organisations for direct marketing activity. 

Your details may be given to external organisations who are contacted to carry out a specific task on our behalf under the following circumstances: 

  • Service providers and business partners. We may share your personal information with our service providers and business partners that perform marketing services and other business operations for us. For example, we may share your personal information with companies that assist us with data hosting, processing a large mailing, organising a fundraising event, and cleansing data, which we do, to ensure that our records are accurate and up to date. We may share your personal stories with PR agencies to create marketing materials if you consent for it to be used for this purpose. 
  • Any law enforcement agency, court, regulator, government authority or other third party. We may share your personal information with these parties where we believe this is necessary to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, or otherwise to protect our rights or the rights of any third party. For example, we are legally required to provide your data to HMRC if you have agreed to us claiming Gift Aid on your behalf. 
  • Asset purchasers. We may share your personal information with any third party that purchases, or to which we transfer, all or substantially all of our assets and business. Should such a sale or transfer occur, we will use reasonable efforts to try to ensure that the entity to which we transfer your personal information uses it in a manner that is consistent with this privacy notice.

5. How we contact our supporters

Everyone that we contact can choose what methods we use to do so and this option can be changed at any time. You can change your communication preferences by completing the form on the following page:https://preventbreastcancer.org.uk/contact/communication-preferences/ or by contacting us directly by emailing info@preventbreastcancer.org.uk or calling 0161 291 4400. 

Prevent Breast Cancer sends supporters an e-bulletin twice a month and we also occasionally email information specific to events you have shown an interest in if you have consented to receive such updates. 

We send information in the post 4-5 times a year which contains updates on fundraising, fundraising events, stewardship events, volunteers, and the research we conduct, if you have consented to receive it. 

With your permission, we will only ever phone your personal number about specific events or news you have registered an interest in – never to push any fundraising or to ask for donations. 

Note that the activities listed above are likely to be considered ‘direct marketing’ and is subject to special rules under the law. In particular, you have the right at any time to request that we stop sending you these communications. 

We may ask for your permission to contact you via WhatsApp or other online instant messaging services on social media, such as Facebook Messenger, if we have reason to do so, for example you have signed up to volunteer at an event or participating in a sporting activity. Communications through these channels will be with an individual from the charity who represents our aims and objectives and your data from these conversations will be restricted to the organisation’s profiles, not the individuals’. 

We may directly message you through social media channels (e.g. direct messaging on Twitter) for specific reasons such as  answering your enquiry or asking for your permission to share information or photographs you have posted online that are relevant to the organisation. 

Where it is appropriate and relevant, we may write to you by post to tell you about ways you can support our work, invite you to free events (e.g. our annual Thank You Evening or Research Evening) to thank you for your support, or to update you about our research. 

You can contact us to change your contact preferences at any time by filling out the form on this page, or contacting us directly by emailing info@preventbreastcancer.org.uk or calling 0161 291 4400. 

6. Information security and storage

We implement technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk to the personal information we process. These measures are aimed at ensuring the ongoing integrity and confidentiality of personal information. We evaluate these measures on a regular basis to ensure the security of the processing. Personal information is stored on a secure database and access is restricted to staff of Prevent Breast Cancer.  

We will keep your personal information for as long as we have a relationship with you, whether that is through donations, fundraising activities, or by providing you with news and updates. We will then retain your personal information for a period of seven years for the purposes of record-keeping, audits, and dealing with potential complaints or claims. We will only retain your personal information for a longer period if we are required to do so to comply with the law, or if there are outstanding claims or complaints that will reasonably require your personal information to be retained.

7. International Data Transfer

From time to time, your personal information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in a country that is not regarded as ensuring an adequate level of protection for personal information under the UK Data protection laws. 

When that happens, we put in place appropriate safeguards (such as contractual commitments) in accordance with applicable legal requirements to ensure that your data is adequately protected, for example we can use the IDTA (International Data Transfer Amendment) or the Addendum as a transfer tool to comply with Article 46 of the UK GDPR when making restricted transfers. 

For more information on the appropriate safeguards in place, please contact us using the contact details below.

8. How to access your personal information and exercise your other rights

You have certain rights regarding your personal information, subject to local law. These include the following rights to: 

  • access your personal information 
  • rectify the information we hold about you 
  • erase your personal information
  • restrict our use of your personal information 
  • object to our use of your personal information 
  • ask us not to use your personal information for marketing (including profiling) purposes 
  • receive your personal information in a useable electronic format and transmit it to a third party (right to data portability) 
  • lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Officer. 

If you would like to discuss or exercise such rights, please contact us at the details below. We encourage you to contact us to update or correct your information if it changes or if the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate. 

We will contact you if we need additional information from you in order to honour your requests. 

You can contact us to make these enquiries by visiting this page, or by emailinginfo@preventbreastcancer.org.uk or by writing to:

Prevent Breast Cancer
Prevent Breast Cancer Research Unit
The Nightingale Centre
Wythenshawe Hospital
Southmoor Road
Manchester
M23 9LT 

9. How we handle direct debit or credit card information

Prevent Breast Cancer ensures that sensitive information such as debit and credit card data is collected securely online. Debit and credit card payments are processed on our behalf by payment service providers Blackbaud and Shopify Payments, who encrypt the data to protect your details. Prevent Breast Cancer does not store any direct debit or credit card information.

10. Links to third-party websites

Our website may include links to other websites, not owned or managed by Prevent Breast Cancer. While we endeavour to link only to reputable websites, we cannot be held responsible for the privacy of data collected by sites not managed by our charity, nor can we accept responsibility or liability for their policies. 

This privacy notice applies only to our site, so we recommend that you always read the privacy statement of any external website which collects personal information.

11. Changes to our privacy notice

If we make changes to this privacy notice, we will publish the updated version on this webpage and make it clear on our website that we have made a change. Where we make changes that are substantial, we will aim to give you advance notice of the change so that you can exercise your rights (for example, to object to the processing). 

Last updated: August 2023

About Prevent Breast Cancer

Prevent Breast Cancer is the only UK charity entirely dedicated to the prediction and prevention of breast cancer – we’re committed to freeing the world from the disease altogether. Unlike many cancer charities, we’re focused on preventing, rather than curing. Promoting early diagnosis, screening and lifestyle changes, we believe we can stop the problem before it starts. And being situated at the only breast cancer prevention centre in the UK, we’re right at the front-line in the fight against the disease. Join us today and help us create a future free from breast cancer. If you have any questions or concerns, email us today.